CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB

NEXT MEETING ___________________________________________________

Monday, July 16, 12:00 noon

Cellar Restaurant at Union Square

Downtown, Chattanooga

Topic: CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE RELOCATION

Completed in 1870, the Cape Hatteras Light Station Complex is located on the Outer Banks of Coastal North Carolina (U.S.). It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Civil Engineering Historic Landmark. With erosion threatening the complex, the National Park Service (NPS) sought a plan to help ensure the lighthouse remained a fixture on the Outer Banks. The challenge of the plan was to rescue the light station complex by relocating it some 3000 feet to the southwest. This placed it 1,600 feet from the shoreline, which is the same distance from the shoreline when it was completed in 1870. Additionally, the move had to be completed within a window of time between the spring nor’easter season and the late summer/early fall hurricane season.

The journey of this 5,000-ton light house and the engineering feat associated with lifting and moving it to its new location is the topic of our presentation this coming Monday by Randy Knott, Regional Chief Engineer and Vice President for Law Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. Law Engineering was the firm chosen to undertake this $9.6 million project. Randy specializes in construction, foundation engineering, historical structure preservation, environmental restoration, and the application of geosciences to engineered construction.

OUR PREVIOUS MEETING ________________________________________

Our thanks go to Brad Baucom for this summary of our recent meeting:

Richard Smith, RN and Clinical Specialist of Medtronic’s Cardiac Arrhythmia Management Division gave us a presentation of the latest innovations in implantable cardiovertor defibrillators. Starting about a decade ago with four-pound units implanted in the abdomen, these devices have been developed to be not much larger than a cigarette lighter that can be implanted in the chest. Not only are the units physically easier to live with, they provide many new features such as the ability to detect flutter / fibrillation or artioventricular arrythmias and to deliver an electric shock similar to that of an external defibrillator. Internal microprocessors that are part of the device capture waveform data of the heart function during an event. A physician can later retrieve and analyze the data to determine what corrective steps to take.

FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS ______________________________________

July 23: Trends in Storm Water Management. Bill Payne, Cha. Dept. of Public Works

July 30: Field Trip - a tour of the printing presses of the Chattanooga News Free Press. Operations Manager, Frank Anthony, will be our tour guide.

August 6: An Award-Winning Fully Automated Storm Water Screening Facility. David Bible ,Project Manager, ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller.

August 13: The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Storage Project

August 20: Water for the People. A global view of a vital but increasingly scarce resource

August 27: Recent Developments Medical Imaging Technology

September 3: No meeting, in observance of Labor Day

September 10: Genetic Engineering – Advances and Prospects

September 17: Efforts to meet the water requirements of the Sequatchie Valley

September 24: Sewage and Wastewater Treatment – New Requirements, New Technology

On the burner for October/November:

NASA Technology Transfers – Important technology spin-offs from NASA’s research and development efforts that significantly effect our lives. Marshall Space Flight Center

Chandra X-ray Telescope – This orbiting telescope is changing our perception of the universe. Marshall Space Flight Center

November meetings hosted by ASME to be announced

WHERE WE MEET ___________________________________________

All these meetings will be held at the Cellar Restaurant at Union Square Downtown, Chattanooga from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. Free parking is available for this occasion at the Days Inn Motel (on Carter St. and MLK Blvd) – courtesy of the Days Inn management. (If you park there, please leave a note on your dashboard indicating you are attending the Engineers Club).